Best Supporting Actress nominee Amy Adams wore this pale silver Oscar de la Renta gown with a huge fluffy ruffled skirt, a fitted sweetheart bodice and a train that would have seemed excessive for a royal bride. I love to see Amy on the red carpet, she usually looks amazing, and she often mixes it up and takes calculated fashion risks that pay off for her. This dress feels uninspired somehow, like it’s over the top but in a way that’s not risky at all. There’s something “off” about the look. Plus the color of the gown washes her out, and her styling leaves something to be desired. This is better than last year’s Oscar look for Amy, but she went “too formal” where she was too casual in 2012. She’ll get her fashion and makeup exactly right when she does win that Oscar, and I suspect it won’t be long now.
Here’s another Best Actress nominee, Helen Hunt, who of course got shut out by AnnE and her unstoppable false humility. Unlike Anne, Helen went with a decidedly downmarket designer for her Oscar gown, H&M! She told Ryan Seacrest that H&M was “going green, they work with this company Global Green that I love. It’s a win-win.” Helen’s navy strapless gown wasn’t a standout, but coupled with her gorgeous jewelry and how pretty and comfortable she looked, it definitely was a win-win.
Catherine Zeta Jones wore this gold sequin and mesh mermaid Zuhair Murad gown that just looked trashy, especially on screen. There was too much going on with the complicated beading on the bodice and the curlicue throughout the skirt. Her hair was really fake looking too. When Ryan Seacrest interviewed her with Michael Douglas, I got the impression that Douglas was kind of drunk, but she seemed to hold it together.
CZJ performed “All That Jazz” as part of one of the many musical numbers that were like bags of pretzels handed out during a really long flight. (At least CZJ’s performance was. I would never say that about Adele or Babs.) She also presented Best Musical Score, along with her fellow castmembers from Chicago. (That movie came out 10 years ago. I don’t get it.)
Octavia Spencer was in her go-to designer, Tadashi Shoji, and I like that she went with a different fit than the Grecian dresses she was wearing last year. (Maybe that style is on the wane anyway.) Renee Zellweger said something last night that explained to me celebrities are so loyal to a specific designer. She said, about Carolina Herrera, “I love her and I love her team… I always look forward to those guys showing up.” That makes a lot of sense, they get to know and trust these designers. I get why celebrities form a relationship with one designer who consistently makes them look good instead of paying a stylist who may have her own motivations.
Octavia looks lovely and I like her asymmetric neckline here. The bangs are a little much, but her styling is otherwise pretty. This is the kind of skirt that I would have liked to see on Amy Adams’ dress – big and flowy but not comical.
photo credit: FameFlynet and WENN.com
It’s very cool of Helen Hunt to wear that H&M dress, but a bit of ironing wouldn’t have hurt. It looks all frumpy.
Amy Adams looks like Big Bird. I hate those over-the-top-skirts.
I have to disagree on Adams. I think she pulled it off. Not everyone can. But she did.
Im gonna have to politely disagree on Amy Adams. This is stunning on her. The natural makeup is gorgeous. Her skin is perfect. She is old Hollywood personified. I think she’s stunning.
I agree.,. and really, where else are you going to wear such an extreme gown? It is a lot of dress but it works for an Academy Award nominee.
+53 even my boyfriend agrees
Agreed!
Also, Amy Adams can do whatever she wants- she’s a 4 time Oscar nominee who is Lois Lane and Charlene and Peggy Dodd and basically a BAMF. I love this woman. Favorite ginger!
Yes, Helen’s dress looked quite crinkled.
It was probably steamed within an inch of its life before she got in the limo. Short of lying on the floor during the ride, there isn’t much to be done. Some fabric wrinkles easily.
Amy Adams looked amazing. If you can’t wear egregiously fancy looks at the Oscars, where can you?
Anne’s mullet dress was hideous.
I actually thought Octavia had one of the better looks of the night. It was very pretty, very well fitting and just all around good… take a note Melissa McCarthy!
+1…Octavia looked like a million dollars. I first caught her in a cutaway from the show, and was struck by what an amazing dress she had chosen. Her hair was done well, I’m curious to see if or how many thumbs up she gets in people’s best dressed polls today…and I really like HHs dress, especially that shade of blue, and that necklace? Glad to see her glam it up.
Amy’s dress reminds me of the one worn by Charlize Theron to the 2005 Oscars.
Exactly! I was about to say the same, only that Charlize’s Dior gown was much more beautiful and stunningly gracious the way it was moving around her.
Yes. I thought the exact same thing.
I assumed Amy’s dress was Marchesa. That’s never good.
actually her dress was de la Renta
I know. But it looked like Marchesa, i.e. tacky.
I liked Amy Adams’ dress and I usually don’t like frilly ball gowns. It was pretty and fun and she’s a sweetheart so she usually has to get it really wrong for me to dislike what she is wearing. I thought Amy Adams was one of the best dressed of the night and I also thought her dress looked better than JLaw’s Dior gown.
Helen Hunt looked good but I agree with the comments around the web that she should have gotten the dress ironed. It would have dramatically improved her look.
Zeta Jones looked good in the dress which showed off her curves, but I agree that the look was a bit cheap for the Oscars. She could have done better.
Octavia Spencer looked nice but she looked better in the Grecian dresses from last year. This looked too much like a prom gown and I wish the tulle had covered both of her upper arms evenly as that isn’t her best asset. I also don’t like the bottom of the dress. Her dresses last year accentuated her curves and showed off her legs. This just covers her up and makes her bottom half look bigger.
I think the huge dramatic dress has a vintage quality to it that requires an actress like Amy Adams to pull off. But I think Adams is talented enough and genuine enough in that talent to make it work. I saw she changed into something more slinky for the after party so it was a best of both worlds.
And seriously., look at Adams hair and skin. Her skin is flawless. She is 38 years old and she looks 30.
wow! I didn’t know that she is 38, she really seems way younger. I hope she gets an Oscar soon, she was so great in “Doubt”.
I think the dress looks stunning on her and her hair and makeup make a good combination.
The Oscar De la Renta reminds me the Sarah Jessica Parker dress in the last episode of Sex and the City.
Helen Hunt’s dress is WRINKLED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is all. . . .
Really like Amy’s dress, I don’t think it’s ridiculous at all. How is it “too formal” for the Oscars? Where else are you going to wear that?
At a wedding (as the bride). When I get married, I totally want a similar style on my wedding gown.
I LOVED Amy’s dress. Along with JLaw, Kerry Washington and Jessica Chastain she was my best-dressed of the evening.
I’m on the fence about Amy… It’s almost too much, but she comes close to pulling it off. If there is any time when an actress can wear such a massive dress it is the Oscars, so I guess she had a right to go for it.
Helen Hunt looks amazing. It was brave to come with an H&M dress and she really pulls it off. Efficient, elegant.
CZT looks very manufactured. I kind of like the top part of the dress, but overall it’s overkill.
There are only a few people I think are talented enough to show up in that ballgown and pull it off. And I think Adams is one of them.
She has 4 Oscar Noms in 7 years. I feel like she can kind of do whatever she wants. If she wants to dress up like a Princess in a ballgown…go for it. She knew she wasn’t winning (however annoying that is). So she may as well have fun.
Octavia and Helen Hunt for the win!
HH’s dress is such a great color and I like the cut as well. Looks a bit wrinkled in the skirt area, but, overall it’s really good (esp. since it’s H&M)
Octavia’s dress really flatters her figure and I really like the soft neckline. She looks good in white, but the dress would have worked just as well in a nice color.
Too many white dresses last night……..
I usually don’t care for skirts like that, but I actually really liked Amy’s on TV. Didn’t photograph as well though.
Octavia looks pretty, and Helen would have looked great except or the dress being so wrinkled.
I would have liked Catherine’s better if the gold had continued instead of turning into that skirt, but don’t like how the design zeroes in on her stomach, that’s never good. She looks great though.
In addition to Amy Adams looking amazing, I think Halley Berry and Jane Fonda’s dresses were unreal. They both looked stunning.
AMY WAS FLAWLESS!!!
Her after party look was amazing as well.
And I LOVE Helen for saying her dress is H&M
Octavia’s dress made her look fat and unfortunately she did not need to look fatter.
I think grey is washed out and boring. Poor Amy needed a nice blue or something more flattering.
The bottom part of Catherine’s dress was gross.
Nichole looked super, but too much make-up, it looked caked on.
I though Helen looked good, but perhaps more colour on her face.
My favorite was Selma. She looked regal. Sally Field looked old. I like Jennifer Anniston’s dress and Jennifer Lawrences’ too.
I like Amy Adams gown,it looks good on her ,and i like her too,i hope she win oscar someday,she seems like a real person,no fakery at all.
Octavia’s dress could have worked in any other color, but this dirty white poof looked washed out and smothered her luscious curves. It added weight and subtracted form.
I hate Amy’s look. That dress is revolting. Looks like Big Bird’s frail gramma. Amy is usually dressed smashingly. Didn’t even like her hairstyle here.
Love the idea behind Helen’s choice, but the gown did look wrinkled. Loved her accessories, the necklace especially great with the dress.
Would like to have heard her acceptance speech had she won….
Catherine’s gown looks cheap and tacky. We get it, you’re curvy and muscled. But gaudy is not glamourous unless you’re RuPaul.
Octavia could do without the bangs. It looks like she’s wearing a hat.
Amy Adams looks AMAZING!!!! I’m going to stare at picture #3 all day long. That is just fantastic. Somehow it’s not overdone, it’s just perfect. I don’t know many other actresses who could pull that off, but she can.
Aw I love Amy and I think the dress is stunning but probably not the best colour on her. Helen looks pretty and I love the colour but it is a wrinkled hot mess, no excuse for wrinkly dresses! Catherine looks like an ageing Vegas showgirl, I wish she would stop dressing that way. Octavia looks delightful, if a bit bridal.
Love Amy’s dress. Over the top, but hey, it’s the Oscars!
Amy looked pretty but the train is just too “look at me!” much. I feel like that’s how she’s been dressing lately, never quite gets it right.
Douglas wasn’t drunk, he was coming down off all those tranquelizers that CZJ keeps him on!
Glad Helen Hunt got her make-up situation handled this time, she looked great.
Octavia always looks fab, you go girl.
Helen’s dress looks like a bad, cheap bride’s maid schmatta. Catherine, no just no. Octavia (sorry I don’t know who she is) lovely, just lovely. And Amy, yes it’s a lot of dress but I love it.
Amys dress was lovely, but the colour just washed her out.
Amy Adams tried to pull a Penelope Cruz and aaaaaaaalllllllmost made it. The grey was not flattering at all. The dress would have been amazing on her in another color.
That and I could SWEAR she’s was doing the “Bend and Snap” in picture No.#2
Am I right about the “Bend and Snap?” Bueller? Bueller?
Amy’s dress in another color, even blush, would have been best dressed to me. stunning.
+1
The theme for last night’s Oscars was music in film, CB. And Chicago was the first musical to win for Best Picture. Therefore, the homage to Chicago.
I loved Amy’s dress. She looked stunning. So did Octavia. I like that Helen made a statement with her choice, but the problem with satin is that it will immediately wrinkle when you sit down. Unless you’re going to have a steamer in the limo with you, you should just avoid it.
I really loved Amy’s dress, It was just so pretty and dramatic. I didn’t like the color of Octavia’s dress but she’s a doll so whatever.
I agree with ataylor – it looks like Penelope Cruz’s dress from 2007. To me, it’s ok for some dresses to look alike, but not if it’s one of these over-the-top dresses, which should not be evoking memories of dresses from 6 years ago.
As for Catherine Zeta-Jones, her face looks different – almost Demi Moore-like. I wonder if they have the same surgeon?
I love Amy’s dress.
I guess Amy was going for ‘princess-y’ but..errr..it’s not actively bad, just really pretty-meh.
Loved C.Z-Jones dress and hate Helen’s. First she should change hairstyle, I appreciate the green-thing but that dress is horrible fitted and ugly.
“She also presented Best Musical Score, along with her fellow castmembers from Chicago. (That movie came out 10 years ago. I don’t get it.) \”
Well if you realized the Oscar producer Craig Zadan also produced Chicago then you’d get it.
Lots of self-promotion in last night’s Oscar telecast right down to the choice of host. They acted like the Chicago cast reunion was a Beatles reunion.
Remember Astar the Robot from Planet Danger? Cathrine does. But I don’t remember that face which isn’t encouraging news because the other one was much better.
I love Amy Adams and that dress looks lovely on her. I just wish she got to win in it. Helen’s dress is a beautiful color, but those wrinkles. WIth this material, wrinkles are inevitable and are highly visible, so I’m surprised so many actresses choose it. Octavia is just gorgeous. I like seeing some of the ladies in dresses that are somewhat modest.
I don’t see how anyone can hate on Amy for going “too formal” at the OSCARS. If you can’t go full out on the red carpet of the biggest awards show of the season, then when can you? I loved the whole look on her and I was crushed that she lost out on Oscar yet again. (As I mentioned in another post, the woman could have won an award just from the brief clip of her performance in ‘The Master’ that they showed! What more does the academy want from an actor than what Amy Adams gives? She’s been consistently knocking it out of the park since ‘Junebug’. So crazy…)
I think Octavia looked like a pretty cream puff-y dream in her gown 🙂 I don’t think that Catherine’s dress was all that bad, and actually, that kind of showgirl-y ‘glamour’ is what I’ve come to expect from her over the years, but it didn’t belong on the Oscars red carpet. Judging or performing in a Miss/Ms/Mrs America pageant? Sure. But not the Oscars.
I like everybody’s dress here so I respectfully disagree with all the opinions in this post. Amy Adams dressing too formal? Er, what is this, the VMAs? The color washed her out a little but the dress was absolute perfection.
And I really liked CZJ’s dress. However, it was very, very obvious she was lip synching to her Chicago performance. I’m surprised nobody here has mentioned that, since I’m 99% sure all the other singers actually sang live.
So when is Amy finally going to win the Oscar she so richly deserves? I’m so sick of the mediocre crap that walks away with the gold when Amy doesn’t.
The silver dress kind of washes her out.